NINE
by Freehugs41
Summary: A Trent-centric nine-chapter that will be updated everyday up until 9-9-09 in celebration of 9-9-09. Canon pairings are used in order to avoid fan bias. Please enjoy. I'm sorry for the lateness of chapter FOUR, SEVEN, EIGHT, and NINE.
1. ONE

Yep, I'm starting a new fanfiction, my others will be updated soon, I hope you love it, I own nothing besides the plotline, and you'll understand the format by the second chapter, if you don't already. I'll be posting a new one-shot everyday, up to 9-9-09. They are TDA post-Trent's elimination. I only used canon pairings to avoid fanbias so everyone can enjoy Trent. So...enjoy!

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ONE regret…

Rubbing his forehead, Trent slumped down in his seat in the back of the Lam-o-zine. It was going to be a long ride. 'A long suckish ride,' Trent thought, thinking back to everything he was leaving behind.

Although, he really didn't care about the competition; it's not like the money mattered to him that much. Nor did he wish he'd be there for his team; they'd be better off without him anyway. He didn't mind losing the cameras in his face or the early morning wake-up calls. There was only one thing he regretted leaving behind. Gwen.

Yeah, she broke up with him, left him out, and made him feel like a failure…but, still, he missed her. He didn't know why, but he did. But, it's not like she missed him. She was probably too busy hanging with Duncan to care anyway. 'But, whatever,' Trent thought, 'she already broke up with me anyway…'

He still wasn't sure why Gwen was the only thing he'd miss. She was important to him, but what confused him was how little he cared about the other things that came with losing the competition. 'I mean, I lost a million dollars' Trent thought, staring off into space, 'but when it comes down to it, I guess I never wanted it anyway. I threw all of those challenges…'

Indeed, he decided that it never did really matter. It never mattered in the least. The only reason he had signed up for the competition because he thought it would be fun, and it was…with Gwen. 'So I guess I really didn't want to be there anyway…she probably doesn't want to be around me anymore…that's why she broke up with me…right?' he thought.

Then his thoughts move on to his team. The Killer Grips. He knew everyone thought him crazy for picking the people he did. He even heard Heather talking about it to Gwen one night.

"Did you _see_ the other team?" Heather had said, whispering loudly, "your boyfriend sure knows how to pick 'em, Gwen."

Gwen had just rolled her eyes and walked away.

Trent smiled at the memory, even if Heather had insulted him. The truth was that he had picked every member of his team for a reason…except for Izzy, but she was voted off first anyway…

He picked Lindsay first, mostly to get back at Gwen, but he knew he would've picked her anyway. He liked Lindsay, because he knew she was loyal. She wasn't the smartest, but she had been loyal to Heather for almost an entire season, so she was clearly good at that. Then, he picked Justin because he seemed want to win…really. He had been talking about it since they first started Total Drama Action. Trent had thought a little of that would be good for his team; just one player who really wanted to win. Then there was Beth. Beth was smart and she still is; the only bad portion of that decision was mixing Beth with Justin. That made her worth almost nothing, unfortunately. Then Owen; he just liked Owen. It was always good to have someone with a positive attitude, right? And finally, Izzy, like mentioned earlier, was just the only one left.

So, he knew that they would be a good team…especially without him. They might just win the next challenge, in fact. He knew they could do it. 'They don't need me missing them' Trent thought, smiling at the thought of them.

Then, the rest of the things he wasn't surprised to not miss. Like the cameras. They were everywhere; and he hated every one of them. That was a given

And then, there was Chris. Yeah, his wake-up calls and obnoxious remarks tended to make the contestants, and Chef, hate him. Trent was glad to be away from him.

So the only thing left was Gwen. Trent sighed and pulled out a page of crumpled song lyrics from his pocket. He skimmed them over, and read the lyrics he had written only a few hours ago:

_You never text me back anymore;_  
_I remember the nights we stared into the sky,_  
_But now you make me feel like dirt;_  
_Though, I never told you that summer, girl,_  
_You were my entire world;_

_And now you're gone_

Yeah, maybe he had exaggerated a little…but, still. He missed Gwen.

He shoved the lyrics back into his pocket and look out the window of the beat-up limo he was riding in. The limo had come to a stop in front of a large building. He quickly swung the door open and stepped out, but as soon as he did, he heard two large squeels coming from the direction of the building. He looked up and saw two identically dressed girls running towards him, looking exciting.

'This is going to be a long summer…'

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Be ready for part two, which shall be posted tomorrow afternoon. Also, I will be updateing LSAT soon, for all who care. I wrote half of part two for that in study hall. I just need to type it up and make up the other half. Thanks guys!


	2. TWO

This one is short-ish, but I'm tired so…hopefully tomorrow will be longer. I've decided that this isn't so much a group of one-shots as it is a nine chapter story, so I'm changing the description of this story. Anyway, I don't own anything, and I hope you enjoy part two.

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TWO people to avoid…

"Trent!"

"Oh my gosh, Trent, you're here!"

There, in front of Trent, were Katie and Sadie, who were clearly very happy for him to be there. '…is it just me, or did they not seem so taken with me a few weeks ago?' thought Trent, smiling hesitantly at the girls. "Uh…hi...where are we?" he asked, looking at the girls' faces full of glee.

Sadie answered almost immediately, "We're at the place they take you guys after you get kicked off!"

"What's the name of it, again, Sadie?" asked Katie, scrunching her face up, as if she were thinking very hard.

"Oh! I forgot again!"

"Oh, darn it, me too!"

Trent just sighed and said, "well, I'm going to go inside then-"

"Oh, Trent, can we come with you?!" asked Katie, squealing with delight.

Sadie joined in moments later, with the same tones of utter excitement in her voice.

"Can we?!"

"Sure, I guess…" said Trent, slightly unsure of his decision as the girls squealed at his reply.

Katie and Sadie then simultaneously grabbed Trent's wrists and pulled him towards the building. While they were running, the girls began to speak to him loudly. "Oh, I bet they already have you're stuff inside!" called Sadie.

"Yeah! That's what they did with Izzy's stuff, anyway." agreed Katie.

"Right, Izzy," said Trent, having forgotten about the other eliminated contestants for a moment, "and what about Geoff and Bridgette?"

Sadie replied almost instantly "Oh, yeah, them. Yeah, their stuff was brought before they got here too."

"I can't believe they didn't care that they got eliminated." Katie said, mostly to Sadie.

"Well, they did, they just don't really show it." said Sadie.

"Oh, yeah," agreed Katie, before adding to Trent, "you should hear Courtney talk about them."

"Courtney?" Trent asked, confused.

"Yeah, she's- like –really mad that Geoff and Bridgette totally 'wasted' their spot in the competition of whatever." replied Sadie, while the group walked through a pair of doors and came to a stop.

By that time, the group of three came to a stop. Trent looked around and saw that they were in a very nice-looking lobby. It could be compared to a hotel in the way it was furnished and the air it had about it. He didn't have too much time to look at his surroundings before Katie and Sadie pulled him over to a nearby couch and sat him down in between the two of them.

Trent looked nervously at the two of them as they continued to hold onto his arms. "…guys, what are you-"

"Oh Trent," interrupted Sadie, "you _have_ to tell us everything!"

"Like, everything, everything!" agreed Katie, tugging on his arm slightly.

"Everything? What do you mean?" Trent said, confused.

"About the competition, silly" said Sadie.

"Oh, it looked horrible!" commented Katie.

"I know, right?"

Trent sighed and attempted to slowly remove himself for the girls' grasps, but it didn't do any good. He then, as kindly as he could, started to say "Uh…guys…I'm going to go now, okay? I'm really tired and-"

"Oh, no, please stay!" Sadie interrupted, immediatly.

"Yeah, please!" Katie joined in.

"Please!"

"Plea-"

Just as Trent was struggling for the right way to reject them, someone new walked into the room, and said, kindly, "Hey guys. Hi Trent! Welcome. Uh…want me to show you to your room?"

Katie and Sadie giggled as Trent got up while replying to the boy, "Sure, thanks."

And with that, he made his way out of the room.

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Sorry for any errors, because I didn't spend much time revising and editing this story. So, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I'll be posting up part three tomorrow, 9-3-09. Thanks for reading, guys! Please review.


	3. THREE

Remember how I said I was tired last night? That's nothing compared to tonight. So I wrote this up as fast as I could to get it posted. Sorry if you think it sucks. I'll edit it tomorrow. Yeah, I own nothing, so enjoy and tell me if you want me to re-do this chapter. I'm already thinking about adding more to it...and I will! Tomorrow. Look for it.

So, here it is, for now. Make the best of it.

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THREE Questions:

"Thanks for the save, man" said Trent, following his friend out of the room and down the hall.

"No problem" replied Cody, smiling at him.

Trent smiled back and continued to follow Cody down the hallway. A design similar to that of the front room spread all through it. There was blue striped wallpaper with white doors every so often. Trent looked around for a while, as he had not gotten to do so yet, before a thought came to his head. "Hey Cody?" he asked.

"Yeah?" Cody replied, almost immediately.

"Can I ask you some questions?"

Cody shrugged, "Sure"

"Awesome," said Trent, smiling, "So, do you know where my room is?"

"Oh, yeah. It has your name on it."

"My name?"

Cody nodded, "yeah, when you guys get eliminated, they assign you a room; the next one down the hallway. It's pretty easy to figure out."

"Okay," said Trent, "that makes sense. Where are we anyway?"

"Someplace near a studio or something. That's all I know. Well, all I can remember. They told us the name…or, at least, I think they did…"

Trent smiled, "So nobody remembers?"

"I don't know. Somebody might. You might want to ask around."

"Okay, thanks." Said Trent, as the two of them came towards the end of a hallway. Towards the end, there was a large window, with large flower arrangements on either side of it. The rooms, in this area, all had plaques on them, saying the name of a former competitor.

"Yeah, the plaques are pretty much how we find out who gets voted off," said Cody, shrugging, "the interns come here and put them up and then, you know, everybody comes and looks."

"Why don't they just show you the clips like they did the first season?"

"Well, they do, just not as soon as the put up the plaques. We actually like it better this way."

"Oh, cool." said Trent, as he spotted his own room.

The two made their way towards it and Trent opened the door. Inside the room, all of his stuff was sitting neatly on the bed; his guitar, his suitcase, and everything. He stepped into the room and turned around, now facing Cody.

"Yeah, well, I'll let you go to sleep then. See you tomorrow." said Cody, smiling and making like he was about to turn around.

Trent stopped him by saying, "Wait, I have one more question."

"Yeah?"

"What's up with Katie and Sadie," Trent asked, "they seem really-"

"Annoying? Yeah, they're both crushing on you."

"What?"

"They think that Gwen was really mean to you and that you were 'so cute' or whatever. I don't know. All I can tell is that they were waiting with bated breath when they found out you were eliminated."

"Gwen wasn't that mean. It wasn't even her fault, really."

"Yeah," said Cody, nodding slightly, "what happened, anyway?"

"I don't know, I guess we just kind of…drifted apart."

Cody nodded again, "I got that, yeah. She just seems kind of…"

"…yeah. Uh…I'm going to go to sleep know, okay? It's been a long day."

"Sure, I'll see you tomorrow!"

"You too" said Trent, before closing the door. He then walked over to his bed and collapsed down onto it. It had been a long day, indeed.

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Yeah, it has been a long day. So I'm going to sleep. I pushed myself to get this up, for real. Thanks for reading and please review. I hope you like the story so far.


	4. FOUR

This chapter is such an epic fail. It's short. It's late. It's boring. I'm sorry. I'll fix it tomorrow. I promise.

I own nothing.

Thanks for hanging in there.

Sorry, and enjoy.

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FOUR glares:

Trent woke up the next morning. He didn't know why, because he was expecting to sleep until the late afternoon, at least. But, yet, he wanted to wake up. He felt…starving. But, somehow, he wasn't really in the mood to eat. So he lay in bed, looking up at the white, textured ceiling. 'This sucks' he thought, knowing how tired he was, despite his inability to fall asleep.

It took him around twenty minutes before he finally gave up on just lying in bed, and slowly stood up. It took him a few minutes to get used to standing up. He then changed into his regular day clothing. The open suitcase was shoved into a closet. The sheets on the bed were moved into a position to make it look made. Then, he walked out of the door.

He moved down the brightly lit blue-striped hallway slowly, sighing and the emptiness of it. That's what he wanted. He wanted company; a friend of two to hang out with. Like Cody or…well, not Gwen or LeShawna or Owen…they're all in the competition. And Gwen just broke up with him…

Trent sighed. He began to wander back into the main lobby of wherever he was. Then, as he was looking around, he heard the sounds of talking coming from down another hallway; the one across from the main doors. He shrugged and turned down the hallway, hearing the noise getting closer.

He made his way down the hall until he made it thought an open doorway. Inside, it looked very similar to a cafeteria. He looked around at the tables…until he realized he was surrounded by silence. Complete silence.

He looked up to see everyone else who had been voted off or not able to compete staring up at him. Cody looked friendly, and all the rest looked at him kindly or sympathetically, especially Katie and Sadie. Yet, there were four hot glares he could feel on him. There was one from Noah, looking at Trent as if he was a disgusting excuse for a person. Then, there was Courtney, who just looked envious of his chance, and angry at how he blew it. 'Man, Katie and Sadie weren't kidding' thought Trent.

After Courtney, he spotted Eva, who was crushing a milk carton in her fist. The white liquid was oozing out over her hand as her faced turned to a red, rage-filled color. Then, there was another glare, coming from Geoff, who just looked pissed about something. Then Trent noticed that Bridgette was looking at Trent with sympathy. 'Oh, that's why' Trent thought, sighing.

He made his way to the nearest table and sat down.

'Yep, this will be a long summer.' He thought, groaning.

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Yeah, it's short. And late. Sorry…I'll fix it, I promise.

This story will be updated (and hopfully revamped) tomorrow.


	5. FIVE

I've been thinking, and I may not make the other chapters longer…I may not. I'll re-read them tomorrow. Then I'll make my final decision. Thanks readers and reviewers.

I own nothing.

Please enjoy.

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FIVE Reasons:

"Hey Courtney?" asked Trent, knocking on her door.

He had made it through breakfast, barely. He ended up sitting with Cody, who started talking to Noah about some anime that nobody cared about. So, then he just kind of poked at his eggs; his nine eggs...nine times. His philosophy was that, the more often he used his lucky number, the better his luck would get.

It hadn't worked yet, but it was going to. He knew it.

But, despite his optimism, he knew his luck just kept getting worse; first Gwen, the then elimination, and now being rejected by everyone else who wasn't in the game. It sucked. Now, he decided to get to the bottom of why everyone was angry at him. So he decided to ask the person who was, notably the angriest. Courtney. She was the one Katie and Sadie had thought to mention, after all.

"Courtney? Hello?" Trent called again, knocking loudly on her door.

"What are you doing?" asked a degrading voice from behind him.

He turned around to find Eva, lifting weights, who had apparently been walking down the hallway.

"I'm trying to talk to Courtney," said Trent, gesturing to her door, "She's ignoring me."

Eva scoffed, "no she isn't."

"What?"

"She's with her lawyer. She wants to sue the show," said Eva, rolling her eyes, before muttering, "dumb prep."

"So she isn't here?" said Trent.

"No."

"Oh. Well, I'm going to go then."

Trent started walking, and he had gotten past Eva, on the way to his room, when he heard her voice again. "Why'd you want to talk to her anyway?" asked Eva, scoffing, "Getting revenge on Duncan?"

"Duncan?" asked Trent, confused for a second, but then he quickly shook his head, "No, I just wanted to ask why she's so mad at me."

"I can tell you that." said Eva, shrugging.

"You can?"

"Yeah," said Eva, "She's mad because you screwed up your chance at the competition for your girlfriend. Well, your ex-girlfriend."

Trent sighed before saying, "Well, why is she mad at me if it was my chance?"

"Because she wanted to win"

"So that's the only reason?"

"No, she's also mad that you couldn't keep Gwen. She's afraid that Gwen's going to steal her boyfriend or something. And she's mad that you picked such a lame team; she said she could've done better," said Eva, "plus, she just hates your guts in general. She likes to rant about it."

"What? None of those are good reasons to be mad at me! Most of them weren't even my fault!" said Trent, incredulous.

Eva just shrugged and kept lifting weights.

"So, are you mad at me? You were glaring at me earlier and…"

"You're the one who is pissing off Courtney. So we all have to listen to her. That was why I'm pissed at you. You could always try to make her forgive you. Then she'll shut up for a change."

"She never liked me to begin with. Plus, I thought she'd be madder at Gwen then at me."

"She is. You should hear her rant about Gwen. It's annoying. She's also pissed at Duncan," said Eva, "She thinks they like each other."

"What?! They like each other?"

"No, Courtney just thinks they do. She's freaking paranoid."

Trent sighed and shrugged. 'Man, it's probably a good thing I didn't run into Courtney then, huh?' he thought, knowing that, from what Eva described, she might have strangled him. Trent let out a small chuckle at the thought.

"What's so funny?" asked Eva, suspiciously.

"Nothing. It was just-" started Trent, cut off by the sight of a teenage girl walking through the doorway at the end of the hallway.

"Speaking of the prep…" muttered Eva, as the new girl approached.

'1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9'

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There it is, nice and late ;)

Here comes the next part…


	6. SIX

It's up! I still own nothing.

Please enjoy.

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SIX Worries:

"Hello, Eva." greeted Courtney, politely. Eva just nodded.

Courtney just ignored Trent. She then turned to her room door and opened it up, the two bystanders looking on, motionless. The girl could sense that too, and she turned around. "What are you guys doing?"

"I was just talking to Elvis here." said Eva, gesturing to Trent.

Trent just ignored the nickname and said, "Hey, Courtney? Can I talk to you?"

"I'm very busy Trent." said Courtney briskly, gesturing to her arms full of papers and books.

There were stacks of books, presumably law books, and manila folders filled with papers in her arms. She could hardly operate a door, but she managed.

"Do you want any help?" Trent asked, half-heartedly.

"I can handle this myself, thank you." said Courtney, propping the door open with her foot, "now, if you'll excuse me, I have _work_ to do."

Courtney walked into her room, shifting her shoulders up. Yet, when she did so, she caused a folder that had been precariously perched in her pile it fall behind her. Trent leaned down to pick it up and began to notify her of its location, but Courtney closed the door too quickly.

Trent just sighed and picked up the folder. On the front, it said "Journal" in large, purple, cursive letters. He flipped though the papers in it to see that it was full of what looked like journal entries. Trent quickly looked to Eva…or, where she used to be. Sometime during his conversation, or lack there-of, with Courtney, Eva must've left. Which, Trent understood.

Plus, he was glad she was gone, especially as he snuck into his room with the folder.

He closed the door and sat down on his bed. Then he opened the folder and pulled out the first piece of paper.

_I've decided to keep a journal of what this reality show is like. So, when I win, which is inevitable, I will be able to write a book; a sequel to "Total Triumph for Teens," perhaps. My team doesn't look good though. But, I'll make it though. I mean how-_

'Maybe I should start with a more current entry…' thought Trent, picking exactly the last paper in the folder.

_Duncan is such an idiot. He told me that he was my boyfriend, and now he's flirting with Gwen? What the heck is that? What if he dumps me? What if he is happy that I'm not in the game? What if he thinks that he can date Gwen because she dumped Trent? What if he only dated me in order to wait for Gwen? What if he doesn't like me? And what if he never did?_

_This is it. I'm getting on that reality show if it's the last thing I do. And if Duncan thinks he can dump me, he's wrong. Because I'll dump him first._

'Well that clears a few things up,' thought Trent, 'I guess she is a little more worried than angry.'

But Trent couldn't pretend that he could just brush off what she had written. Those questions stuck in his head. What if _Gwen_ never liked _him_?

'I knew I shouldn't have read it,' thought Trent, lying to himself, 'now Courtney's going to kill me. Well, if she finds out that I read it.'

He knew that him sneaking the folder back effectively should be his top priority, but it wasn't. He now couldn't stop thinking about why Gwen broke up with him.

'What if she had an ulterior motive?' he thought, feeling his stomach churn.

That thought scared him more than Courtney, which said something.

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Done for the night; I hope you enjoyed it.

Expect this updated tomorrow.


	7. SEVEN

It's late. I know. Read it anyway.

I own nothing.

Please review.

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SEVEN Instructions:

He had managed to get the folder back into Courtney's room, without her noticing, luckily. Then, he spent the rest of the day playing his guitar. Well, until Evan threatened to come inside his room and break his interment in two if he played another note.

Then, the next morning, an intern came into the building during breakfast, and called out Geoff and Bridgette. They were pulled out the room for the remainder of breakfast, and everyone was confused.

But, soon after breakfast, the entire group was called out. They were then all gathered together and taken to a studio. Inside, there sat Geoff and Bridgette on a couch in the middle of a stage.

On either side of their couch, there were bleachers. A blonde intern ushered all of the former contestants, save Geoff, Bridgette, Trent, and Izzy, into the bleachers on stage left. Geoff and Bridgette stayed on their couch and Izzy and Trent were put into the bleachers on stage right.

Then, Chris showed up, wearing his extravagant directors outfit again.

"Howdy, _campers_." He said, flashing them a smile, "tomorrow you guys will be making the first ever, Total Drama Action Aftermath!"

"What's that?" asked Eva.

"It sounds like fun!" squealed Sadie.

"Oh, it does! I can't wait!" agreed Katie, "but, what _is_ it?"

Chris smiled his I-know-something-you-don't-know smile and said, "It's a talk show, with the hosts being Geoff and Bridgette, and-"

"Why _them_?" asked Eva, glaring at Bridgette.

"Because we like them," answered Chris, "as I was saying. We are going to have those who didn't qualify be the peanut gallery. And those who were eliminated will be the guests."

"That is so cool! I have, like, the best stories to tell!" called out Izzy.

"Great," said Chris, "Now, I came here to give you guys some instructions, because the interns don't like talking. Anyway, you guys need to be here after breakfast tomorrow. We will film this then. Remember to not be late, bring your TV smiles, comment on stuff, interact with the _live audience_, bring up the ratings, and bring the drama. Any questions?"

"This is a waste of time! I have important-" started Courtney.

"Oops, time to go! Check you later" said Chris, cutting off Courtney and leaving.

Once he had left, the group erupted in chatter.

"I have to spend my morning _here_?!"

"This is so dumb."

"Cut into my reading time, why don't you?"

"Ugh! I'm too busy for this!"

"Eeeee!"

The crowd continued to make similar noises as they bustled out of the door. Meawhile, Trent followed up the rear of the crowd, with one thought on his mind.

'Interview?'

----

Here comes the next chapter...


	8. EIGHT

Here it is. I own nothing.

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EIGHT Impatient People:

Trent sat on his bed, strumming his guitar and focusing only on that. He didn't want to think about the interview he just completed. He didn't want to think about pouring his broken heart out on international television. All he wanted to think about was how he was alone, finally.

In fact, that's all he focused on for a few day. Up until the fateful day when an annoyed-looking blonde intern came down their hallway. He stepped up to the door next to Trent's room and caught lots of excited glances. Katie, Sadie, Noah, Cody, Eva, Tyler, and Ezekiel all came out of their rooms, as did a curious Trent. They all walked up to the door next to Trent's. The interned put up a small plaque and forced his way through the ex-contestants.

Then, there was a gasp, followed almost immediately by another. "Oh. My. Gosh." said Sadie.

"I know, right?"

The rest of the faces looked interested and shocked by the name on the plaque, so Trent became even more curious. The he looked up at the name himself.

There, in small letters, read the name, "Gwen."

Trent's eyes widened and he felt the stares of his peers. They were nervous to see his reaction, or, perhaps, more impatient than nervous. Trent gulped as the news sunk in, and the people around him slowly started to disperse. He headed back to his room too, still thinking, 'Only a few more hours and she'll be here. Only a little bit longer…'

Trent walked into his room and sat down on his bed. He was annoyed, he was nervous, and he was frightened. But, most of all, he was impatient. And, so was everyone else who had looked at that plaque and he knew it.

----

I'll update tomorrow. Goodnight.


End file.
